Andhra medicos call off their prolonged strike

Hyderabad: Agitating medicos in Andhra
Pradesh on Wednesday called off their nearly month-long stir
following an assurance from the government that their demands
will be met.

The breakthrough came following talks the junior doctors
held with the State Medical Education Minister K Murali Mohan
in the wee hours today.

"The minister gave us an assurance of hiking the stipend
from April 2012. We were flexible on the issue of increasing
the stipend, but we stressed on improving the infrastructure
in hospitals in the interest of public health," a leader of
the Junior Doctors` Association told reporters after the
talks.

According to him, the government gave assurances on
upgrading the emergency departments in the hospitals by
spending Rs 65 crore over the next four months.

The government has also agreed to upgrade the casualty
wards in the teaching hospitals over the next few months by
providing various facilities, he said.

The government is also ready to improve library
facilities for the medicos and also ensure transparency in
conducting entrance exams for the post-graduate courses, he
said.

Saying that the government is committed to public health,
the minister appreciated the medical students` move of calling
off their agitation.

The medicos had begun their agitation about a month ago
over 13 demands. They also boycotted emergency services in the
last few days as part of their agitation.

They had held talks with the government several times
earlier, which had failed to resolve the issue.